


And Each Time They Said

by transportive



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Last of The Jedi Series - Jude Watson
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 13:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8103910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transportive/pseuds/transportive
Summary: Trever Flume was tired of being left behind. He was left behind by his entire family, never to see them again. And every time, they said the same thing:I'll be back.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my friend Liesl for brainstorming with me!

Mira Flume was packing. Her two sons were sitting on her bed, watching her. Her husband, Tiron Flume, was in the kitchen—she could hear him making dinner for the boys.

Mira wouldn’t be joining them that night, however; she shipped out in a few more hours and she needed to get to the spaceport.

Other than the noise from the kitchen, it was strangely quiet for the Flume household. Normally the boys—nine and fifteen—were loud, to say the least. Tike would bully Trever (in that loving older brother way) and they would run around the house and the yard. But right then they were fixated on their mother. Their mother who couldn’t bear to look them in the eyes.

Tucking her long bluish hair behind her ears, Mira put yet another unnecessary pair of socks in her bag. She knew that she was putting off finishing the job and saying goodbye when really she had finished packing days ago.

But she heard a small noise from behind her and she knew she couldn’t avoid looking at them anymore.

It wasn’t surprising to her that it was Trever that had started crying, not Tike, who was for his own part staring mostly at the floor. The sight of her younger son nearly broke her heart. He was still so small, especially compared to his brother, and now, sniffling loudly and wiping at his face, he was shrinking in on himself like he wanted to disappear.

“Trever, honey,” Mira said gently and got up to go over to her boys. She nudged Tike gently who obediently scooted over so that she could sit between the two. She put an arm around Trever first, who clung to her, and then around Tike who was much more reluctant. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” she said.

“Why do you have to go?” Trever asked her, so earnest and uncertain all at once.

There were a million reasons that Mira could have listed. She knew exactly why she wanted to go fight in the war. She had had endless debates with friends, family and Tiron alike about why she enlisted. But how could she even begin to explain the politics of her desire to fight for the Republic, for Bellassa, to a nine-year-old?

“She’s going to go fight the bad guys, stupid,” Tike grumbled.

“Tike,” Mira admonished only gently, but she could almost kiss the boy for simplifying it so much. To clarify to Trever she said, “I want to fight for Bellassa. It’s to keep you boys and your dad and everyone else safe.”

“Why do you have to _leave_?” Trever pressed. “Can’t you do it from here?”

Mira shook her head. “No, sweetie. I’m leaving to make sure the danger never comes home to you. I want it far away from Bellassa, okay? So I have to be far away for a little while.”

Trever nodded, and so did Tike, even though he wasn’t the one protesting at the time. She wasn’t sure either of them were actually convinced, but Mira herself was absolutely sure of her convictions. She knew what she was doing was right.

She would fight so that her boys never had to.

“Don’t worry, boys,” Mira said, kissing the tops of both of their heads. “I’ll be back.” 

* * *

 

Tike could tell his little brother was just a couple of steps behind him still as they got close to the Ussan Day Academy.

The kid had stopped wanting to walk directly with his older brother only relatively recently. Before, back after their mother had died, Trever had always wanted to hold Tike’s hand on their way to school. But now that the war was over, Trever seemed to think things were safer and didn’t feel the need to be so close to his older brother’s side.

Tike knew better.

It made him constantly aware of where Trever was and what he was doing, now that the newly formed Empire was nosing its way into Bellassan business. Trever didn’t seem to get it, not completely, but Tike figured that Trever could be forgiven since he was all of twelve years old. Trever was still a smart enough kid to not like the Empire and to listen when Tike told him that things were bad.

Tike normally kept a close eye on him to make sure he stayed out of trouble. And taught him a few things so that he could get himself out of trouble if he needed to, things he hoped Trever would never have to use, but better safe than sorry. After all, their mother had fought to keep the fight away from the both of them… and now here it was, in Ussa.

The least Tike could do was keep up the good fight and keep it away from Trever.

Tike saw some of his friends up ahead, loitering near the fence of the school. He had been working with them for a while now on small ways to chip away at the Empire’s grip on Ussa. Ola knew some people in the infamous Eleven, and so liked to consider herself an unofficial member of the group. Each of them, Tike included, considered themselves a part of the wider resistance.

Ilya, Ola’s contact in the Eleven, had told them that there would be a protest at the defence plant today. The plan was to head there early and help rally the cause.

After giving Ola a hug, Tike turned to face a curious Trever.

“Alright. Here’s where I leave you, kid,” he joked. “Get yourself to class.”

His little brother looked at him, perplexed. “Aren’t you going?”

“Nah,” Tike said. “There are bigger things to worry about, okay? I’ll come pick you up after school.”

“Can I come? I don’t want to go to class either.”

Ignoring the snickers of his friends, Tike crouched down in front of his kid brother. “No way, buddy,” he said. “This is for the grown ups. It’d be boring for you anyway—we’re just going to a protest. No big, alright? I’ll be back.”

* * *

 

Tiron leaned back in his chair, listening to his partner, Amie Antin, typing away on a datapad. Their appointments were done early for the day, and now it was mostly a matter of waiting at the office for another hour or two to fill prescriptions and tend to any emergencies that cropped up. Amie, diligent as always, was doing research. Tiron was more distracted, watching the HoloNet’s steady stream of images of the protest going on at the defence plant.

Laudable work, he thought, but he was glad all of this was far away from the boys. He hoped things didn’t keep escalating as they were in Ussa.

He saw Amie glancing at the time as a nurse stepped into their joint office. It was about time for Adem to be arriving at the office to wait until his mother could take him home. Amie started to stand as the nurse said, “your sons are here.”

Both Tiron and Amie paused. Tiron had a bad feeling about it.

“Sons?” Amie echoed.

“Adem and Trever,” the nurse explained, shrugging his shoulders. “They walked here together.”

Amie looked at Tiron, who also rose, turning his back on the HoloNet. “Well, let them in,” he said, trying to keep his cool.

Why was Trever there?

And where was Tike?

The nurse disappeared for just long enough to fetch the two young boys. Trever shuffled in first, hands shoved in his pockets, while Adem followed along behind the older boy. Adem went straight for his mother and Trever sat down in one of the patients’ chairs.

Tiron took a good look at his younger son and felt his heart in his throat.

“Trever,” he said. “Why didn’t you go straight home?”

Trever shrugged. “Tike didn’t walk me home. So I thought I’d walk Adem here.”

“Why didn’t Tike walk you home?”

“He wasn’t there.”

“Where was he if he wasn’t at school, Trever?” Tiron asked carefully.

Trever just shrugged.

Tiron felt himself reeling for half a moment when a few key phrases started standing out to him from the news behind him.

Protestors. Trapped. Storm troopers.

Tiron knew exactly where Tike was.

He was a flurry of movement, grabbing his jacket as both Amie and Trever watched him.

“Tike isn’t—” Amie started, looking past Tiron and at the vidscreen.

“I’m afraid he is,” Tiron replied grimly. “Isn’t that right, Trever?”

His younger son looked at him, then the screen, suddenly looking nervous. He seemed torn for a moment, but nodded.

Turning to Amie, Tiron said, “I’m going to go negotiate this. They need people there to resolve this as quickly as possible. If I can get them to at least let the protestors go without punishment…”

“You don’t have to explain to me,” Amie assured him. “Go get your son.”

“Dad?” Trever asked, frowning. “What should I do?”

Amie nodded to Tiron and he said, “stay here, son. I’m going to go get your brother. I’ll be back.”

* * *

 

Amie found it difficult to focus after Tiron left. It wasn’t that the boys were causing much problem—Trever was reluctant to play with a boy three years his junior, that much was clear, but he seemed to do alright with Adem—or that the patient calls were particularly much.

It was the vidscreen showing a live feed, now, of the defence plant. Stormtroopers surrounded the building. The protestors could be seen inside. There was talk of negotiators arriving to work things out.

And that’s when she saw Tiron.

Suddenly aware of the boys pausing their play, Amie was fixated on the image of her work partner talking with the leader of the battalion. Then of him heading toward the factory and making his way inside.

The newscaster kept talking about what was going on, about the fact that Dr. Flume and the other negotiators were trying to convince the protestors to listen to reason. Amie knew that none of them intended to give up the fight, but it was mostly young people in that factory. Children like Tike. They needed them to see that their point was received. This shouldn’t be their fight anymore. Not if the Empire was bringing in Stormtroopers to root them out.

There was a long, heavy silence.

Everyone seemed to realize that something was about to happen. Even the two little boys behind Amie. She had half a mind to switch of the feed, but there was no time.

The sound of the explosion might have masked the sound of Trever’s shriek had it not knocked the feed off the air—leaving nothing but dead silence.

Horrified, staring at the vidscreen, Amie barely registered the sound of the door of the office being flung open, banging against the wall.

She turned around in time to see the door swing shut. Adem sat wide-eyed, staring at the door where the other boy had just disappeared.

Trever was gone.

And Amie wasn’t sure that he’d ever be back.


End file.
